


They're So Pretty, It Hurts

by A_Love_Song_She_Wrote



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Bookstores, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Other, Pining, hisirdoux casperan is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28036623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Love_Song_She_Wrote/pseuds/A_Love_Song_She_Wrote
Summary: Several minutes of the reader being a disaster for Zoe
Relationships: Zoe (Tales of Arcadia)/Reader, Zoe/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	They're So Pretty, It Hurts

**Author's Note:**

> Pining. So much pining.

Sometimes, you go to a bookstore, and you see a pretty girl. You make eye contact, and it’s only for a second, but it still takes your breath away. Her eyes are just so blue, the colour of the sky when the sun is finished rising. You could get lost in them, you wanted to get lost in them, but instead, you look away almost instantly because being perceived is Not Fun. Still, your cheeks are warm, and you’re desperate to steal another glance at her.

This is one of those times. Except you worked at the bookstore, but that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Bottom line, you’d made eye contact with a cute girl and instantly fallen in love with her. It be like that sometimes, but we manage and move forward. You managed and moved forward by hiding behind one of the shelves. You were not the best at managing and moving forward. You may have actually gone backwards, I’m not sure. Either way, your heart was racing, practically beating out of your chest. It felt you couldn't breathe, like oxygen was made of cute girls, which sounds nice but is, in practice, really impractical and very suffocating.

“Uh, (Y/N)? You good, mate?”

“Hhjkjadfhkaljdfhakhfd-”

“Oh, fuzzbuckets.”

Your lovely, lovely coworker, Hisirdoux Casperan, had noticed you hiding behind the shelf, which wasn’t difficult at all, really. You didn’t care though, you were mostly hiding from the cute girl. Literally, anyone and everyone else who entered the bookstore could see you, but that didn’t matter. As long as she didn’t see, everything would be fine. Douxie, however, thought you may have had a stroke.

“(Y/N)?” he gave your arm a little poke, “(Y/N)? (Y/N) darling, are you-”

“Alkjdhfalksdhfajlksdfhakjf, yeah, sorry, I just-” you didn’t finish your sentence. You just kind of floated away into the void, attention stolen again by the cute girl. Her hair was pink, her clothes very punk-rock. Yeah, yeah, you were a goner. God, she was pretty. Oh. Oh, fuck, she was coming this way. 

You jerked your head to face the books you were hiding behind (something about true crime? It looked cool, but now was not the time,) while Douxie faced the cute girl head-on. You would never know where he found the confidence, but you respected it.

“Zoe! This is (Y/N), she’s the new one I was telling you about.”

Zoe. Zoe. You liked it. It was pretty, like her. Oh, god, she was talking to you.

“(Y/N), huh? Cute name, it suits you.”

If you could think coherently, you would have been wondering if that meant she found you cute, but you couldn’t think coherently. At the moment, your thoughts were mostly “AKJKDSFHKJHG,” and “KSHFJAHFKJHAKDFHKALDFHLAJSDFHKLJADSHFKLHASKDJFHKALS,” and you still couldn’t breathe! It was very valid of you, to be honest.

“Uhh, thanks. You too.”

Good, good, that was what a normal person would say. This was a normal, average conversation. You definitely didn’t have a huge crush on her or anything, nooooo-

“So, uh… true crime?”

You blinked a few times in confusion before realizing that she was referring to the shelf you were leaning on. Oh, yeah, true crime. Oh, god, she was looking at you, they were both looking at you, QUICK THINK OF SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT TRUE CRIME.

“Uh, yeah, I like… crime.”

Oh, wow that was dumb. I mean, it wasn’t the worst thing you could have said, but you would always remember that one of the first things you said to Zoe was “I like crime.”

She raised an eyebrow, “You… like crime?”

Too late to back out now, “...Yes. I’m… I’m good at crime. I enjoy arson.”

It was stupid. Really stupid, like, you didn’t even know where that came from. But it made her laugh. And you knew at that moment that you would do anything to make her laugh again. Her smile was a blessing that brought light into your world, and you wanted to see it every day if she was okay with that.

“Ah, I like you, you’re cute. Anyway, I have to get back to work, but I’ll see you later. And you!”

You were trying to recover from the first six words of that sentence, but now she was pointing at you! And looking! Eye contact! Ah!

“Stick around Arcadia, ok? I wanna see you again.”

“I-I um-” you were straight-up dying now, ok, “Well, you know where to find me!”

Her smile was the most important thing in the world and you would die to protect it.

“Aight, I’m out! Bye guys!”

“See you, Zo.”

“B-bye!”

As soon as she was gone, you collapsed against the bookshelf and buried your face in your hands. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, WELL, that could have gone better, but it didn’t go worse, and for that you were thankful.

Douxie stared at you for a second. He’d seen friends in this state before, as often as the night prior, actually. Zoe had had the same reaction when she first saw you that you had to seeing her now, and he’d promised to introduce you. She’d been so calm earlier because she’d been practicing what to say in the mirror for, like, a day. You, on the other hand, had not prepared for this. It was finals week and you had not studied. Shit, you hadn’t even known about finals week. Your friend had just devised this gay little plot and it left you a flustered mess with no study materials. There were no cue cards in this world, only pretty-girl-panic and fits of uncontrollable blushing.

He knelt down to get on your level, “You okay?”

“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“Understandable. You wanna chill in the back for a minute?”

“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

It wasn’t a verbal confirmation, but you nodded, and he took that as a yes. He helped you to your feet and led you to the back, which was technically his house, but whatever, semantics. 

“Here, I’ll just let you chill for a bit. I’ll be back soon, please don’t die.”

“I won’t!”

He smiled at that and walked back into the shop to continue dealing with the public. F in the chat for Douxie. In the meantime, you just curled yourself into a ball on his couch and made a low humming noise. Man, were you bad at… everything or what?

“Mrowr?” You looked up to see a familiar mass of black fur, his head tilted in curiosity. 

“Ah, hey Arch.”

“Mrp.”

“You know you don’t have to do the whole cat thing with me? I know you can talk.”

“Well, it’s nice to pretend sometimes. Besides, we don’t know when that door’ll open again or for who. It’s best to stay inconspicuous.”

You let a small laugh escape you as you started to calm down, your lungs finally getting the oxygen they’d so desperately missed, “I mean, that’s fair.”

“Mrpt?” which, in cat, meant, “So, what’s up?”

“Well, it’s this girl. Zoe. Pink hair, blue eyes, the most gorgeous human being I’ve ever seen. I just… she’s really cute and I made an absolute fool out of myself in front of her.”

“Mrooooooooooooooooooooow,” meaning, “(Y/N), dear, I know this Zoe. She’s friends with Douxie. The bar for general foolery is pretty high.”

“You really think so?”

“Mrow!” “(Y/N), I know so. If you like her so much, you should talk to her more! You’re a nice person, I’m sure she’d like you!”

“Thanks, Arch.”

“Prrbt,” “You’re welcome.”

“Well, I should probably get out there. Go be a functioning member of society. Thanks again, bud,” you gave the cat-dragon a little scratch behind the ears, smiling again at how he stretched up to meet your hand, “See ya around, cat man.”

“See you, (Y/N).”

You gave the familiar one last grin before you slipped out the door, glad that you could breathe, finally. And then that was ripped away from you by a cute pink-haired lady in the middle of the bookstore.

“Oh! Zoe! Hi!”

“Hey, (Y/N)! I just realized I uh, sort of forgot what I came here for.” 

“That’s understandable! It happens to me all the time!”

“Heh, yeah,” she stopped talking and just stared at you for a second. You did the same before remembering that she said words, and that meant something.

“O-oh, yeah. What is it that you were looking for?”

“Oh, just,” she pulled a post-it note out of her pocket and handed it to you. Her finger brushed over yours and you could almost feel a spark there, “Just this.”

“C-cool! Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, I’ll be right back!” you gave her a quick nod before running upstairs to grab the book. While you were distracted, Zoe had her own little meltdown, but she composed herself as soon as she noticed you coming down the stairs.

“Aight, so here you go,” you handed her the book, fingers brushing hers, electricity running through them. Literally, there was electricity. You waved it off though. It was a magical world, and this wasn’t the weirdest thing to happen today (nope, that little award went to “I enjoy arson.”)

“That’ll beeeee, nothing. Take it.”

“Wait, that’s-that, why?

“I mean, it’s not something I’m allowed to do but, eh, you’re cute. And I told you I enjoy crime, didn’t I?”

“I’m-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it,” you said, immediately losing any cool persona you may have had. Zoe didn’t mind. She thought you were cute no matter what you did. That in itself was made evident by the blush on her cheeks.

“O-oh.”

You smiled a little. You did that, you were the cause of it. You could only hope that she was also okay with this.

“Well,” you bit your lip. The longer she stayed quiet the more you doubted your flirting skills, “I’ll be seeing you!”

“Wait!”

Your head shot up, eyes immediately focused on her, ready to hear whatever she had to say. Man, you were a simp.

“I uh… I was wondering if I could get your number? With this?”

You were pretty sure you died for a second, but when you recovered, you stuttered out a, “Yeah,” and quickly wrote your name and number on the post-it note she’d handed you.

The smile she gave you when you passed her the note was quite possibly the best thing you’d ever seen in your life.

“Well, I’ll call you! Or text you, or whatever…”

You couldn’t help but laugh at how nervous she was, because that was a solid mood, “I look forward to it!”

And with that, she was gone, but she couldn’t stop thinking about your laugh, and how she’d do anything to see your smile again.

Inside, you were thinking the same, or you were until Douxie re-appeared from wherever he'd been hiding.

"Congratulations!"

You jumped an entire foot in the air, something you didn't really think was possible until right then, "Jesus Christ, Casperan! Don't sneak up on me like that, God. That's the seventh time today, we need to get you a cowbell or something, my Go-"

"So, did it go well?"

Your satisfaction painted itself on your face, "Yeah," you hummed, looking out the window, "It went well."


End file.
